“Deponent?” … “Defective?” … “Middle/Passive?” — “Calling a ‘horse’ a ‘horse.’”

There’s a famous older expression from another generation, even another millenium now, regarding “…calling a ‘horse’ a ‘horse’,” which basically means identifying something for what it really is. In the realm of personal character traits, this might mean simply being honest with yourself and/or others. In the realm of language and grammatical terminology, it may have some meaning application as well. For example, within the corpus of Greek grammatical terms, “deponent” is a term appropriately ascribed to a category of Greek verbs appearing with middle or passive endings, yet necessarily translated in the active voice. Examples:

• ἔρχομαι — Present/Deponent/Indicative/1st person, singular = I am coming, going
• ἤρχομην — Imperfect/Deponent/Indicative/1st person, singular = I was coming, going

Notice the "parsing" (identification of tense, voice, mode [mood], person, and number) of the above two examples of the deponent verb, ἔρχομαι. While many (if not most) Greek "parsing" resources will list the parsing of deponent verbs as middle/passive, I have always felt it to be extremely beneficial to "call a 'horse' a 'horse'" when parsing deponent verbs. There are at least two obvious reasons:

1. It reminds the Greek student that he's looking at a specific category of Greek verbs (deponent), and
2. It reminds the Greek student not to translate these verbs as middle or passive, since they are neither.

By "calling a 'horse' a 'horse'" and identifying deponent verbs for what they really are, the Greek student will readily recognize and accurately translate these verb with an active voice translation. Remember, too, that some Greek verbs (like ἔρχομαι) may be deponent in one or more tenses or modes without being deponent in all. [Example: ἤλθον = Aorist/Active/Indicative/1st person, singular/3rd person, plural.] Other “deponent” verbs frequently encountered include: βούλομαι (I am wishing), and πορεύομαι (I am proceeding). "So," you may ask, "when are these deponent verbs appropriately called defective?" (Good question.) By definition, a defective Greek verb is literally the Aorist passive "form" of a deponent verb, which, when translated, is also translated in the active voice within the Aorist tense. An example would be:

• πορεύομαι — Pres., Deponent, Indic., 1^st Sing. = I am proceeding
• ἐπορεύθην — 1^st Aor., Defective, Indic., 1^st Sing. = I proceeded

Note: Some verbs have both an Aorist deponent ("middle") form and and Aorist defective ("passive") form, translated identically:

• ἀπεκρινάμην 1^st Aor., Deponent, Indic., 1^st Sing. = I answered
• ἀπεκρίθην 1^st Aor., Defective, Indic., 1^st Sing. = I answered

So, in summary: "Yeeee Hawww! Let's call a 'horse' a 'horse.' Gallop on through Greek, y'all."

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Principal Parts of Frequently Encountered

The verb tenses in Greek are divided into six basic “systems” called Principal Parts. Each system has a distinct verb stem, from which all the various tenses and their respective “voices” are built (click on first image to open and enlarge to full size within a separate window). In order to recognize a Greek verb, it is necessary to be familiar with its principal parts. The “regular” principal parts system is represented by λύω (click on remaining images in order or download the entire PDF here). The Principal Parts chart represented within the above image files delineates in alphabetical order the principal parts of many frequently encountered “irregular” verbs occurring in the Greek New Testament.

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Greek Diphthongs: “See” What You “Say”

When working on the memorization of Greek verb endings, it’s important to “see” (in your mind’s eye) what you say (outloud or silently) as you practice. Therefore, regarding the Greek diphthong “ει,” it seems preferable and wise to pronounce it phonetically the same as the identical diphthong in the English word “height,” as opposed to the phonetic sound in the English word “freight.” This is because the “ει” diphthong occurs within the 2nd and 3rd persons of "active voice" verb endings of the Indicative mode (-ει, -εις), later “lengthening” to -ῃ when used in the same persons in the Subjunctive mode (-ῃ,-ῃς). Since the phonetic sound of ῃ is the same as the diphthong in “freight,” it tends to confuse the usage of these separately occurring endings (“ει” in the Indicative; “ῃ” in the Subjunctive, also "middle/passive voice" Indicative 2nd sing.) if pronounced identically. Putting this ει diphthong into a memorable memorization context—as my beginning Greek professor humorously used to remind us:

“If you should accidentally fall out of bed at night, don’t say ‘Ouch!’ Say, ‘Oh, ice, eye, ahmen, ete, ousi.’” (Indicative mode verb endings: -ω, -εις, -ει, -ομεν, -ετε, -ουσι).

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The “Bottom Line” on μι-Verbs

Don’t be intimidated by these “irregular” New Testament Greek verbs. If you pay attention, they too reveal structural “patterns” that you can find some comfort level in recognizing in context. The primary “bottom line” characteristics of μι-Verbs are presented below, and also as a downloadable PDF, which includes Indicative Mode formation charts and a listing of the most frequently occurring μι-Verbs in the New Testament.

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Wermuth’s “Famous Quotes & Memory Joggers” —OR— “Beginning Greek Grammar’s ‘Top 20′”

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“Christian Love’s Crowning Touch: Loving One Another” (1 John 4:12, Greek & Latin)

Interestingly, during last Sunday’s worship service, I found the Greek and the Latin complementing each other quite well as I observed the Greek and Latin (side-by-side) text of 1 John 4:12b. In the context of the entire verse, Christians, obligated by the love that God has shown to us in Christ, are told that “if we should love one another, God’s love has been fulfilled/made perfect (τελειόω) in us.” The Latin Vulgate closely parallels the Greek here, using a verbal form (consummata est) from which one can easily recognize the roots of our English word “consummation.” Among the lexical Latin definitions of the root word (including: "add/reckon/total/sum/make up; finish off, end; bring about, achieve/accomplish; bring to perfection; be grown)" is to “put the finishing/crowning touch.” Broken down even further, the student of Latin (or English) can readily spot the basis for the English word “summit” within this Latin word. So, like water increasingly poured into a previously empty glass, or as one standing upon a mountain’s “summit,” God’s love is “fulfilled,” in us, matured to the “crowning touch” when we love one another in Christ.

 

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1 John 1:7, 9: God’s Forgiveness through Jesus Christ:

"Arise my soul, arise, shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears;
Before the Throne my Surety stands . . .
My name is written on his hands." (Charles Wesley, Trinity Hymnal, #223)

Most of us, as Christians, truly believe that God can and does forgive us our sin debt. But, sometimes, with some sins, we may feel like "hiding" a serious or recurring sin behind or under all the other ones that we're fairly confident are "covered" by God's mercy and grace. Maybe something from our past, or some particular sin from which we just can't seem to "shake off (our) guilty fears." Yes, it's true that 1 John 1:7, 9 that God "cleanses us from all sin . . . from all unrighteousness." Still, we think, "How can we 'hide' this 'really big sin' in with all the others" to convince ourselves that God forgives that one too? Read more...

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Ephesians 1:4-5; Romans 8:29-30: God’s Adopted Children:

Greek compound verbs have always fascinated me, since like in English (though many people don't recognize or appreciate them because of the words' unfamiliar Latin origins) they carry the resultant meaning derived from the inherent meanings of the two individual Greek words now joined. Most often these Greek compounds have a preposition as part of their forms. In the verses observed here in Ephesians 1, the Greek compound verb (ἐξελέξατο) occurring in an Aorist Middle voice form meaning (along with ἡμᾶς), "He chose us for Himself," comes from the lexical form ἐκλέγω, a compound from the preposition ἐκ (ἐξ- = out of) and the verb λέγω (to say, speak). And this "choosing" or "speaking out" occurred "before the foundation of the world" (v. 4), at which creative point in time God literally "spoke" everything into existence! Read more...

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2 Peter 1:5-11: Your Invitation to the Divine Dance

I don't think I'll ever forget the day I was passing through the seminary library and discovered one of my former Greek students doing some initial sermon preparation for his homiletics class. As we chatted about the passage he was working on (inclusive of 2 Pet. 1:5-11), I began to interact with him about what I for the first time had just noticed within the passage from his opened Greek New Testament.

 

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1 John 1:9:

"So, what gives you the right to judge me?!" When it comes to strained relationships, this phrase, whether spoken or only in our thoughts, oftentimes tends to be foremost in our minds. Not surprisingly, since we all are sinners who "mirror" that marred nature before one another. However, there is One to whom we may not rightfully be justified in asking that question. The holy God Himself holds the only true claim as the ultimate Judge of sinful creatures such as us. Therefore, we should be in no way surprised to find in 1 John 1:9 the necessity of "confession" of our sins before our God, who cannot tolerate sin. However, because of Christ's wrath ending sacrifice on our behalf, God the Judge justifiably becomes the merciful, forgiving God, cleansing those who trust in His Son (see 1 John 1:7):

 

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